Friday, April 05, 2013 3:16 pm

Craig, Weisz to star in 'Betrayal' on Broadway

By MARK KENNEDYAP Drama Writer

Real-life husband and wife Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz are to play an adulterous stage couple in a Broadway production this fall of Harold Pinter's "Betrayal," the latest blast of high-beam celebrities to be lured to Times Square.

Weisz will make her Broadway debut in Pinter's 1978 study in deception, which charts an extramarital affair in reverse.

Her character, Emma, is married to Craig's Robert, but is having an affair with Jerry, played by rising star Rafe Spall.

James Bond star Craig last appeared on Broadway in 2009 in "A Steady Rain," where he received positive notices opposite Hugh Jackman even though the play itself did not.

The married movie stars will join a long list of recent film celebrities to hit Broadway, including Al Pacino, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Matthew Broderick, Jessica Chastain, Robin Williams, Scarlett Johansson, Katie Holmes and Samuel L. Jackson. Others celebrities soon to make their debuts include Zooey Deschanel and Amber Tamblyn.

Casting movie stars hasn't always turned into box office gold. Hoffman's revival of Arthur Miller's "Death of Salesman," Jackson's turn as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on "The Mountaintop" and the Pacino-led "Glengarry Glen Ross" revival all recouped their investments. But Chastain's revival of "The Heiress," Holmes' "Dead Accounts" and Johansson's version of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" did not.

Craig has reportedly signed on for at least two more Bond films following "Skyfall," which was the first Bond film to rake in more than $1 billion in revenue. It also won two Oscars including one for Adele's theme song.

Broadway veteran Mike Nichols will direct "Betrayal," which previews from Oct. 1 and opens Nov. 3 at New York's Barrymore Theatre. The announcement was made Friday.

Craig and Weisz, who is currently starring on screen in "Oz: The Great and Powerful," worked together before in the horror film "Dream House," which came out in 2011.

Couples have been sharing Broadway stages recently, including Michael Shannon and Kate Arrington, who starred in "Grace," and Boyd Gaines and Kathleen McNenny, who starred in "An Enemy of the People."